Europe will be represented in Abu Dhabi talks on Ukraine, French foreign minister says

Paris and Europe will have a seat at the table in next week’s US-brokered peace talks between Ukraine and Russia in Abu Dhabi, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on Sunday.

France “will be around the table,” Barrot told French radio RTL. “The Europeans will be well represented and France will be in Abu Dhabi to participate in these discussions. I cannot yet tell you who will represent France on this occasion, but it will certainly be there.”

U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff announced last Monday there would be trilateral talks between Washington, Kyiv and Moscow on Nov. 10–11, the first since a summit in February. But the extent to which Europe will take part in the talks remains unclear.

“In recent weeks, Europeans have made their voices heard, expressing to the American mediator that no discussion concerning the future of the continent can disregard our expectations and demands,” Barrot told RTL.

European Commission spokesperson Paula Pinho said Friday the EU executive didn’t yet have details to share, but added that “it’s obviously up to the European Union to decide on matters which affect its security and on matters which are of its competence.”

The EU has scrambled to agree on who should represent it at the peace talks and who, if anyone, should be in contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni urged European Council President António Costa to settle the issue in a letter this week, prompting Costa to put it on the agenda of the Nov. 13 leaders’ summit. Meloni’s letter was partly prompted by a phone call Finland’s Alexander Stubb and Norway’s Jonas Gahr Støre made to Putin on Oct. 27, which took some European leaders by surprise.

Meanwhile, the European Commission hosted talks on Ukraine’s reconstruction on Wednesday, bringing together representatives from Ukraine, the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, NATO and the World Bank.

U.S. President Donald Trump spoke late Thursday of a “big, beautiful agreement,” after meeting with Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev, adding: “It’s going to involve more than Ukraine, and I could even say it might involve all of Europe.” The plan has brought anxiety among EU officials, who fear it risks sidelining the continent and emboldening Putin.

“We already have a European security architecture in place — NATO and European Union both have their respective roles,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Friday in response to the U.S. plan. “We must make sure Ukraine is integrated into this architecture. The problem remains that Russia keeps breaking the treaties that underpin it … Putin does not have a veto over European security.”